The answer was, "92,935,700 miles. I learned that last year in astronomy," said Imago Dei Academy third-grader Catherine Sparks. The question she answered was from Jim Tomaka, "How far is the Earth from the sun?"

Tomaka and other members of the Alamogordo Amateur Astronomers Group had set up five solar telescopes in the Imago Dei Academy parking lot one day last week to expand the students' knowledge of astronomy, particularly solar astronomy, through what was billed as "a solar star party."

Close to 80 students from all grades, including a few home-schoolers, went out to look through the telescopes, one group at a time. They were assisted by astronomers Jerry and Barbara Moore, Joe Dunning, Michael Valadez, and Tina and Jim Tomaka.

"A primary reason we do this, come out to the schools, is to encourage interest in science and technology. We want to get kids interested in it," Jim Tomaka said. His daughter Emily, a first-grader, was in the student groups.

"I like the telescopes best. I liked the sun," she said.

One of the telescopes was a Sun Spotter, provided by Amateur Astronomer member Mike Smith, who couldn't attend.

"It's a special type of telescope that projects the image of the sun onto a screen," Tomaka said. "Viewing the sun is safe as long as you use the proper equipment."

Jerry Moore pointed out that their Celestron C-11 was two telescopes in one, "a PST, Personal Solar Telescope on top. It's about 40 millimeters and its only purpose is to look at the sun.

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The flares are plasma being ejected by the sun, tens of thousands of miles tall."

Barbara Moore noted that, "We don't do much solar viewing, so this was a good opportunity to come out."

The students were each given a variety of material, some of it provided by the National Solar Observatory at Sunspot, and some from NASA's Space Place.

"That's the outreach program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.," Tomaka said. More material was donated from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., which has a satellite in geosynchronous orbit that is continuously monitoring the sun.

"Normally we do star parties at Oliver Lee (Memorial State Park), but a month ago we approached Imago Dei Academy about having a solar star party," he continued. "We are looking at the sun through different types of telescopes and seeing different types of features.

"The more technological our society becomes, the greater the potential impact on that technology," Tomaka told the groups. "The sun can affect our power transmission lines, our communications and airline travel.

"The aurora borealis are caused by charged particles coming off the sun, creating a really good light show. Shortwave radios are extremely affected by space weather. During times of increased solar activity, planes need to fly lower -- 25,000 feet instead of 39,000 to make sure they are safe."

The students were impressed.

"It's really neat to be able to see the sunspots on the sun," senior Madison Leslie said after looking through the 90mm Orion Sky Watcher.

"It's really cool, very interesting," added junior Jacob Pitkofsky.

The sunspots, Tomaka said, "are much bigger than the Earth. The core of the sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. You can see granulation on the sun, bubbles of plasma, that are the size of Texas or Alaska. The sun is a million times bigger than the Earth -- that means a million Earths would fit inside the sun."

The sunspots were easily visible through the telescopes, several at a time, as small dark areas.